Oxford dictionary defines “corruption” as dishonest or illegal behaviour. It refers to an individual or group acting dishonestly in return for money or some other reward. Corruption destroys trust, weakens democracy, and hampers the economic development of the country it is practised in. As rightly said by William Gaddis, “Power doesn’t corrupt people, people corrupt power.”
There are numerous methods of corruption such as extortion which means forcing someone to do something by giving them threats. Fraud is an elaborate example of corruption which essentially is the act of cheating to get money, property etc. Cronyism which means the appointment of friends and family to positions they are unqualified for is also a form of corruption. And lastly, the most common form of corruption is bribery. Bribery means giving someone money or other valuable items to get your own way. Bribery is used at a humongous magnitude: bribery can be a small transaction with a person holding authority or at a large scale with huge sums of money to get your way. Any sort of bribery is unacceptable even if it is on a small scale. Low pay scales and minimum wages lead to corruption making it a huge contributing factor for the same. Also, the lack of strict and quick punishments has set a mentality in the corrupt person that he can get away with it, thus decreasing the fear which leads to an increase in the cases of corruption. Finally, a huge factor that is responsible for the high corruption rate is low job opportunities. Due to this, people tend to lean back on corrupt practices to get various jobs. The biggest way to prevent corruption could be having better salaries in government jobs which will decrease the need for certain citizens to lean back on corruption to get by. Secondly, there should be strict actions being taken in case an activity involves corruption. Lastly, there should be strict supervision over the workplace etc to enforce an eye on the public and illegal money transactions.
A way common folk can help lower the corruption rate is by letting people know their stories, how individuals face unfairness due to corrupt practices which will educate people and eventually reduce corruption.
As infamously said by Sir David Hume, ”The corruption of the best things gives rise to the worst.”
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